Veritas
To the Seeker, truth is both sacred and potent, and the Veritas Charms lead her to it. They branch at 4 dots into the Peerless Insight and Relentless Pursuit paths. Scent Falsehood (·) Cost: 1 Wisp Dice Pool: Manipulation + Empathy + Veritas, modified by Commonalty Action: Instant You can tell when people lie, and you smell a constant haze around people whose lifestyle or philosophy is based on deception. If you get successes equal to or exceeding your target's Composure, then for the rest of the scene, whenever the target lies, you will know it. If you use Scent Falsehood on a group, you smell the falsehoods spoken by any member of the group with Composure less than or equal to your successes; those with Composure exceeding your successes can lie without detection. Scent Falsehood only detects a speaker's conscious deceptions; statements of opinion, or mistaken beliefs, are not recognized as lies. On an exceptional success, you gain additional insight into the liar's motive for deception. For example, you could smell the difference between a lie told out of envious malice and one told out of fear, or tell the difference between a sleazy propagandist and a dedicated, noble spy. Moving Finger (··) Cost:1 Wisp Dice Pool: Wits + Composure + Veritas Action: Instant. Name a specific object or class of object. For the rest of the scene, you are aware of the direction and distance to the nearest object of that type so long as it is within 100 feet per success rolled. Given a few minutes close by to triangulate, you can automatically locate the object without needing to roll to locate it, no matter how well-concealed it is. You must know what you are looking for, and can't name objects based on their utility to you, only their composition. For example, you could use this power to search for "audiotapes" to find the wall safe where they are stashed, but you couldn't look for "something incriminating". You could look for "a weak point in the wall", but not "something that would let me escape". Psychic Impression (···) Cost: 1 Wisp + 1 Wisp to see future events Dice Pool: Intelligence + Occult + Veritas Action: Instant By holding an object in your hands, you are able to catch a glimpse of the emotional impressions left behind on it, or significant events it will soon be used in. Successful use of this Charm grants you a fleeting vision of the most emotionally significant event the object was involved in within the past week or WILL be involved in (assuming you do not intervene) within the next two days; each additional success to cast this Charm doubles the range of time you can see into. Especially important events, such as the marriage proposal a ring was used for, may be able to be seen years after they occurred at the Storyteller's discretion. Using this Charm on a bullet might show a vision of the shooting it was used for, using it on a car may show you a fatal accident that will soon claim the driver's life, a painting may show the emotional state of the artist who created it, et cetera. The vision lasts between three and thirty seconds, and occurs to your eyes as if you were at the event in question -- it's up to you to interpret what you see. Due to the difficulty of determining what objects MIGHT be used for future significant events, the Storyteller might ask you to use this Charm when you come into incidental contact with such an object even when you aren't trying to determine its future. Dire Warning (····, Peerless Insight path) Cost: 2 Wisps + 1 Willpower Dice Pool: Wits + Empathy + Veritas - 1 die for each character that has acted this turn Action: Reflexive You see a vision of immediate catastrophe, with barely enough time to stop it. Upon casting this Charm, you restart the current turn as if it had never happened -- because it didn't, it was just a quick flash of the future. A shouted warning can allow your allies to choose a different action for the turn; any action that is identical to the one that happened in your "vision" (as in, the action is the same, and the circumstances are the same -- nobody moved, nobody was distracted by something you did) has the same result as the one in your "vision", the dice are considered to have the previous result and are not rerolled.This Charm can only be used once for a particular round, and takes up your action for the “new” round. Zone of Truth (·····, Peerless Insight path) Cost: 2 Wisps + 1 Willpower Dice Pool: Presence + Subterfuge + Veritas Action: Instant You enchant your immediate area, making deception impossible. This Charm affects an area with a radius of ten feet per point of Inner Light you have. Anyone in this area with a Composure less than or equal to the number of successes rolled -- including yourself -- find themselves incapable of knowingly saying a falsehood (lying) or making statements without knowledge of or regard for the truth (bullshitting) for the rest of the scene. Affected individuals are unaware magic has been used on them, unless they have some ability that allows them to detect it; someone trying to tell a lie or bullshit finds themselves blurting out the truth or "I don't know" instead; though after a few times they'll probably realize something's wrong with them and clam up. On an Exceptional success, affected individuals other than yourself must succeed on a Composure roll when asked a question or find themselves blurting out the truth before they even think about it. This Charm will not prevent someone from making statements they erroneously believe to be true, or statements that are technically true but misleading. Perfect Sight (····, Relentless Pursuit path) Cost: 2 Wisps Dice Pool: Wits + Composure + Veritas – target’s Wits Action: Instant In the blink of an eye, you spot a hole in your foe's defense, revealing it to your allies. Each success rolled reduces the dice penalties for armor, Defense, or called shots on attacks by you or your allies against the target. Additionally, any attack made by you or an ally that rolls more successes than the target's size causes him to be stunned for one round by the pain of being struck in a particularly vital spot. This Charm cannot be cast on anyone already under its effects. The deductions granted by this charm fade at a rate at one per round (i.e. 5 successes, so -5 first round, -4 second round, -3 third round... and so on). Irresistible Force (·····, Relentless Pursuit path) Cost: 2 Wisps, 1 Willpower Dice Pool: Dexterity + Larceny + Veritas Action: Instant Nothing can keep you out, no barrier can block your way in your ultimate pursuit. Any kind of impediment to your progress -- locked doors, difficult to scale surfaces, recalcitrant security guards, even solid walls -- provides absolutely no resistance to you if the penalty it would normally apply to the relevant roll to bypass it (such as Dexterity + Larceny for a lock, Dexterity + Drive for a roadblock, or Manipulation + Persuasion to convince security to let you pass) is less than or equal to the number of successes rolled to cast this Charm. If the penalty is greater than your successes, you reduce the penalty by 1 for each success but still must deal with the obstacle. Solid walls can be bypassed if your successes exceed their Durability, in which case you burst through them like the Kool-Aid Man, leaving a hole others can pass through. This Charm has no effect on things that do not prevent your progress but still have negative effects, such as security cameras. People who try and block you are automatically bypassed if your successes exceed their Composure. They are momentarily cowed, awed, or intimidated from stopping you from passing. However, this doesn’t stop them from taking action against you, only from blocking your path. Orisons Dice pool: Wits + Composure First: Add 9-again to Subterfuge rolls to spot lies. Second: Gain the Unseen Sense (Princesses) merit until the end of the scene. Third: Touch one person with the emblem to learn, at random, one fact that person knows and wishes to conceal.